I was recently contacted by a man who purchased an Ashton 3 chime whistle at a sale a few years back. It's a beauty. He sent me some pictures of the whistles. Take a look.
Did that person know it's original use? I'm wondering if it might have been maritime? I'd love to heard the sound.
He bought it at an estate sale a number of years ago. He hasn't heard it yet. He is planning on contacting a local RR club to try and hear how it sounds. I think it's maritime too. It's been appraised at over $10.000 !
I just picked up a circa 1895 Ashton catalog. Only 12 pages long! The next year (1896) the catalog was 75 pages.
Some of the old Ashton catalogs are online now on archive.org, a great site for information on almost everything. https://archive.org/details/ashtonvalvetradecatalogs